Twenty Eight Years on Earth

In about few hours I would complete twenty eight years on the third rock from the sun, the planet we call our home, Earth. Of course the political divisions in the modern world have restricted our view to the countries we live in. However sometimes while switching through the myriad of television channels inundating our minds, we come across a picture of this rock taken more than forty years ago by the crew of Apollo 8 as they orbited around the moon to witness the ‘Earthrise’ by a member of the mankind. To see this beautiful blue ball hovering in a seemingly endless space forces us to move beyond the boundaries and into the realm of space. Perhaps that is the time when our minds echo with the words of free thinkers like Socrates or Kaniyan Ponngundran. The sentiment of ‘World Citizen’ these men believed in hundreds of years ago are as contemporary as the efforts of a slightly aging United Nations to promote world diplomacy and cooperation. 

I was born in the year 1983 in the city of New Delhi, capital of the Republic of India. A quick Google search for the ‘notable events in 1983’ yields thousands of pages, some affected the humanity in unimaginable ways. I say unimaginable as sometimes the effect of a change remain a mystery for years to come, so somebody somewhere is still trying to fathom it almost thirty years on. Hundreds of physicists would agree to that sentiment, hopefully they would appreciate the dry humor as well. This was the year when internet was created, Michael Jackson’s album ‘Thriller’ decided to stay on #1 for the next nine months, millions of baby boomers decided to glue their eyes to the final episode of M*A*S*H* but three-quarter of billion strong India would remember it as the year when India won the ICC 1983 Cricket World Cup under the captaincy of Kapil Dev in England. Unfortunately it is the same year when thousands of people lost their life in poll violence in the state of Assam, India. ­

However I don’t remember any of these events as they happened. In fact I don’t remember much of the year 1983, of course I was an infant living a life of a mystic, unaware of the surroundings but enjoying the newfound indulgence. It is sad I don’t remember the fun I had but it was only the first chapter in the lifetime of fun I had begun to write. The life expectancy of a male child born in 1983 was about fifty six years; assuming the prevailing conditions affecting the mortality remain the same throughout the life. However these ‘conditions’ have improved since and I certainly expect to live a few more decades than the average figure of fifty-odd years, before death enshrouds me. While Captain Jack Sparrow might have located the fountain of youth but immortality would continue to elude the mankind.

If I try to sum up the past twenty eight years, I can split my life into three stages of maturity (to sum up the years I have to divide, huh?). Each stage was not only the culmination of set of years but also served as a period of value addition as well as validation (yeah, I am an engineer). Year by year I grew, sometimes leaping and other times struggling. More and more value was added to my human content as I learned new things from my parents, teachers and peers. At the same time some of the circumstances gave me chances to validate the lessons learned.

The beginning of the time (0 - 10)

I was born during the early hours of a rainy Tuesday in a hospital in Delhi in the year 1983. These are the years when my mind was like a sponge. I was ready for almost anything. As a youngster there is so much energy that sometimes it is hard to contain it. This is the time when parents act as a lens and help to focus energy at the right places. My parents helped me to focus myself. The parents have to maintain a fine balance between freedom and channelization. I felt free to explore yet I never felt wayward. I might have been lost but always in reach of a helping hand.

The Manhattan Time (10 – 20)

Have you ever seen the Manhattan Island from across the Hudson River? It looks like a series of highs and falls, cluttered in a small place. Perhaps that is the best way I can describe my teens. There are so many things going on yet so many more to come. It looks like an organized chaos, liveliness is in the chaos. The mind has matured and world around is finally taking a shape that you have control over. The hormones are gushing around yet the desire to be at peace with me is the key to surviving the teens.

Reebok (20 - Present)

The twenties is the time when I defined myself. I ventured out of my comfort zone I had created over a period of time. I failed the most during these years yet I have cherished each and every lesson learned during those failures. I have finally come to peace with myself, the search for which began in my teens. I am still sculpting myself but the blueprints are clearer. The woods around me are definitely dark and deep but I have more miles to cover before I finally settle down. Thank you Robert Frost!

So that was a brief history of me on the eve of my birthday. However compared to the age of universe I have been a miniscule part of the history of time that began millions of years ago. But during the few decades each of us manages to carve out, leaves an indelible mark on the face of the universe. It’s these marks combined over millions of years and lives make up the history of mankind. If not for us the time and space would just have been a clock ticking in the void. But we as human beings make the room around the clock, making it more worthwhile and give Gods the reason keep the clock ticking. This post is celebration of my completion of twenty eight years on this great planet. Perhaps on this birthday I will see myself as not just me but a citizen of universe and part of divinity that keeps us and everything around us going.